2 overreactions and two truths about Georgia football's close call vs. Kentucky

When you're the No. 1 team in the nation, the target is always on your chest and you'll always get the best the opposition has to throw at you. Coming into the Week 3 game against Kentucky there was a feeling even Kentucky's best wouldn't be close to good enough.

Nothing could have been further from the truth. The Wildcats stood toe-to-toe with Georgia in what was a physical defensive struggle all night.

Georgia's defense came to the rescue, but the lack of offense and seeing the Bulldogs be out-muscled in the trenches brought about some quick overreactions. However, there are also some hard truths to be discussed about the game.

Overreaction No. 1: Georgia isn't as good as South Carolina

In Week 2, the South Carolina Gamecocks handed Kentucky a humiliating 31-6 defeat at Kroger Field. USC playing vintage Beamer-Ball combined with the Wildcats continuously making mental errors and giving up turnovers led to the lopsided finish.

Given that score, fans and much of the media believed Georgia could potentially hang half a hundred on Kentucky in what was considered a tuneup for the Bulldogs' game with Alabama on September 28.

Realistically, this wasn't even close to being right. Kentucky is a good team that now has a 5-star quarterback -- former Bulldog Brock Vandagriff -- at the helm. They are a well-coached team that simply had an awful game against South Carolina. Anyone who knows Mark Stoops knew that there was no possible way he'd allow his team to be humbled at home in two consecutive weeks.

It's even possible Kentucky's players were looking past South Carolina ahead to the matchup with Georgia. It's easy for an upcoming primetime game on national television against the No. 1 team in the country to get into the heads of young men.

Bottom line, there is no rule of transitive properties in college football. Team A badly beating Team B has no bearing on how Team C will perform or how they are measured later.

Overreaction No. 2: Carson Beck is overrated and shouldn't be considered an elite QB

This is an overreaction that comes about far too often. Anytime Beck has a game that's not up to his (or fans') standard, the immediate blowback is that he's overrated and only get mentioned among the best in the nation because he plays for Georgia.

Beck had what would be considered a "pedestrian" game against the Wildcats, going 14-of-27 for 114 yards, with no touchdowns.

Missing from his stat line? Zero sacks, zero fumbles, and zero interceptions.

The numbers aside, it could be argued that Carson Beck had one of his best games as the Bulldogs' starter. He stared down a ferocious defense who was after him all night long. He was forced to scramble for yardage five times. Beck made the most of a horrible night by his offensive line and kept Georgia in the game.

He ran the ball when needed, made good decisions, and didn't make mistakes that could have potentially handed the game to Kentucky. The best quarterbacks aren't always measured by lofty numbers on the page, they show their worth in how they perform under adversity.

Truth No. 1: Georgia's offensive line may not be as deep as hoped

Coming into the game against Kentucky, it was widely thought that the Bulldogs would employ the traditional Georgia ground-and-pound attack and wear down Kentucky before halftime. The offense play-calling would be littered with toss sweeps, counter plays, and screens to the tailback.

That...didn't happen. In fact, Georgia barely rushed for 100 total yards on the night, and leading rusher Trevor Etienne only came away with 79 yards. Kentucky put on a run-stuffing clinic all night and looked more like Georgia on defense than Georgia actually did.

The loss of walking piece of granite Tate Ratledge to a leg injury early in the game only added to Georgia's woes against Kentucky. The Wildcat linebackers were shooting gaps and making life miserable in the Georgia backfield the entire game.

And while Georgia didn't give up any sacks to Kentucky, the pass protection still left a lot to be desired. Beck was harassed and under duress for a good bit of the game and rarely had a chance to set his feet and work through his progressions.

Offensive line coach Stacy Searels is going to need to figure out the best rotation with Ratledge out of commission for at least a few weeks. With road games at Alabama and Texas coming up (as well as Auburn and Mississippi State squeezed between them) the offensive line will be a key ingredient to keeping the Bulldogs in the win column.

Truth No. 2: The close call was better for Georgia than a blowout win over Kentucky

This may be a bit of silver linings playbook thinking here, but with a week off to prepare for the trip to Tuscaloosa, a hard-fought win over a good team may have done more to get this team ready for Alabama than an easy victory would have.

Georgia will be undoubtedly tested against Alabama and will be facing a hostile crowd similar to what they did in Kentucky. The near-miss by the Bulldogs gives Kirby Smart some specific points that need to be addressed, where another cruise to victory wouldn't reveal as many of the blemishes.

This isn't the first time the Bulldogs struggled in the first away in-conference game of the season, and it usually acts as a springboard to huge improvements the following game. Blowouts are fun for fans, but a game that players must grind out to the final gun builds character.